After Shutting Its Doors Due to the Pandemic, the MEEC is Ready to Welcome Visitors Once Again
FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla. – Two years. Twenty-four months. Seven hundred thirty days.
That’s how long it has been since NSU’s Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC) welcomed visitors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the MEEC, like most other facilities, to close to the community in an abundance of caution and safeguard public health. But now, the time has come to throw open the doors once again!
A “Grand Re-Opening” celebration has been scheduled to re-introduce the MEEC to the South Florida community. The celebration will kick off at 10 a.m. with a beach clean-up event, with the main festivities running 12 – 5 p.m. Saturday, April 23. The MEEC is located in the Historic Carpenter House at 4414 N. Surf Road right on Hollywood Beach.
The re-opening celebration is featuring food trucks on site and a host of family-friendly activities, marine educational presentations and sea turtle feeding demonstrations.
“It has been too long since we enjoyed the company of visitors, and we can’t wait to celebrate,” said Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., a research scientist at NSU and director of the MEEC. “Some things have changed since the last time people visited the Carpenter House, so we want everyone to come out, see what we’ve done and have a good time.”
Burkholder is also the director of the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program and a researcher in NSU’s Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI.)
One of the big changes Burkholder referred to is the fact that there is a new MEEC Ambassador joining Captain, the green sea turtle who lives on site. Another green sea turtle was rescued and, unfortunately, cannot be safely returned to the ocean so she’s going to be taking up residence at the Carpenter House, too.
What makes this new turtle special is she comes to the MEEC without a name. That’s right, and the MEEC has been collecting names the past few weeks (including at the recently held Tortuga Music Festival,) and will continue collecting suggested names at their Re-Opening in order to name their newest environmental ambassador!
This re-opening comes on the heels of the center’s fifth anniversary.
The MEEC at the Carpenter House opened its doors in 2017 with the desire to educate and delight locals and tourists alike through its educational resident green sea turtle, Captain, and the splendor of the South Florida coastal environment. The MEEC was fostered from a partnership between Broward County Parks and Recreation and NSU.
Along with Captain the green sea turtle, the Carpenter House features an interactive Interpretive Center with displays ranging on topics from sea turtle conservation to marine debris. In addition, this year there are new aquarium displays to help education visitors on various aspects of the marine world. The center also offers programming specifically for school groups with a curriculum tailored to the marine sciences.
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